WessexSr 2016

[WyOwyvern]

  Hi y'all,
Porkers 400 route sheets and GPX are now updated and available on the WSR website. 
Hard copies will be posted out this week 

[Smeth]

Hi y'all,
Porkers 400 route sheets and GPX are now updated and available on the WSR website. 
Hard copies will be posted out this week 

Do you want anything checking out west. I'm thinking of a ride from the sprogs digs in Exeter. PM me if so. 

[Bernster]

Thanks WyOwyvern 

Quick question for any riders planning to travel down by train from the London area: it seems there's engineering works on the 1st, resulting in a rail replacement bus service between Southampton Airport Parkway and Bournemouth

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/engineeringwork.aspx?date=01/05/2016

Does anyone have a cunning plan to get around this? I'd really rather not drive, mainly because I don't trust myself to drive back after no sleep, and what's going to be a very tough ride (if the Hard Boiled is anything to go by).

[Anthony]

Does anyone have a cunning plan to get around this?

I've booked an early-ish (8:35) train from waterloo to Southampton, arriving at 10am leaving time for a leisurely 'prologue' ride of around 40-50km through the new forest to bournemouth for lunch, before either a short train or cycle to poole for the start ... sure I will regret this extra distance at some point but I couldn't think of a better way

[Simon_A]

Does anyone have a cunning plan to get around this?

I've booked an early-ish (8:35) train from waterloo to Southampton, arriving at 10am leaving time for a leisurely 'prologue' ride of around 40-50km through the new forest to bournemouth for lunch, before either a short train or cycle to poole for the start ... sure I will regret this extra distance at some point but I couldn't think of a better way

I found this as well, which was a bit of a bind as in all other respects the train was perfect.  Therefore I'm intending to drive down, park at the ferry terminal pay & display (http://www.phc.co.uk/comm_roro_passengers.htm) and have a kip before driving home.  I called the PHC and they didn't seem to have any problem with this considering I'm not using the ferry.  Any further advice on this plan welcome (e.g. 'it's jolly expensive, better to park at xxx' or 'it's always full, don't bother trying' etc)

On another point; trying to be clear on the food strategy, are all the non-commercial controls catered?  I think these are W.Buckland Village Hall + Corscombe Village Hall + Winterborne Whitechuch Village Hall.

[andyp]

On another point; trying to be clear on the food strategy, are all the non-commercial controls catered?  I think these are W.Buckland Village Hall + Corscombe Village Hall + Winterborne Whitechuch Village Hall.

Yes. They're all good, and West Buckland Village Hall (catered by Wellington CC) is particularly good, and all the better for not being Taunton Deane ;-)
There's a small charge for food at the controls to cover costs.

[Smeth]

Does anyone have a cunning plan to get around this?

I've booked an early-ish (8:35) train from waterloo to Southampton, a leisurely 'prologue' ride of around 40-50km through the new forest to bournemouth for lunch, before either a short train or cycle to poole for the start ... sure I will regret this extra distance at some point but I couldn't think of a better way

Anyone else thinking of this might want to try they Hythe ferry from Southampton town Quay. (Check yourself but I think first boat 1000 then every half hour with the odd gap) It's about a mile from the station and drops you at a much better spot for a jolly across the forest .- Hythe, Beaulieu, Brockenhurst etc.  Anyone thinking of it i'll post a track that's a compromise between pretty and speed. We gotta long way to go after all.

[Bernster]

Anyone else thinking of this might want to try they Hythe ferry from Southampton town Quay. (Check yourself but I think first boat 1000 then every half hour with the odd gap) It's about a mile from the station and drops you at a much better spot for a jolly across the forest .- Hythe, Beaulieu, Brockenhurst etc.  Anyone thinking of it i'll post a track that's a compromise between pretty and speed. We gotta long way to go after all.

Thanks Anthony and Smeth for your suggestions.

Smeth, the Hythe Ferry and route across the New Forest sounds like a good plan - would appreciate a link to the track if you get a moment.

Cheers 

[Smeth]

the Hythe Ferry and route across the New Forest sounds like a good plan - would appreciate a link to the track if you get a moment.

Cheers 

Here we go..
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/13246646

I've included a short bit of the A35 to link what is mostly scenic B road to some direct flat lanes. You can shave distance by taking main roads in Bournemouth itself. There is a good-ish cycle path alongside the Christchurch dual carriageway bypass that also saves a few minutes. You can join it instead of crossing the foot/cycle bridge across.

ON the run in I prefer the Overcliff road on top of the cliff to the obvious way into town for the view and the relatively low traffic. You can ride the whole prom at the foot of the cliff if you like from Southbourne to Sandbanks and follow the Poole harbour edge by road/cycle path into Poole centre. I was there on Tuesday. There are very small bits of sand on the prom and speed is limited by dogs/children/walkers/joggers, road train etc.

See you there

[Bernster]

Nice one - thanks very much Smeth.

I'm looking forward to this ride with the usual trepidation, the Hard Boiled was equally amazing and tough (not helped by me eating a full English at the first control, working a bit too hard to cling on to the VeloBoy / Postie / SWRC group and then feeling sick for most of the ride ).

See you all then.

[Simon_A]

On another point; trying to be clear on the food strategy, are all the non-commercial controls catered?  I think these are W.Buckland Village Hall + Corscombe Village Hall + Winterborne Whitechuch Village Hall.

Yes. They're all good, and West Buckland Village Hall (catered by Wellington CC) is particularly good, and all the better for not being Taunton Deane ;-)
There's a small charge for food at the controls to cover costs.

Thx Andy and more than happy with cost contributions; good cause / convenience etc.

I like the sound of riding to the start (esp the ferry / New Forest bit) but am wary of the extra 50km and so will have to think about it further.  Bernster & Anthony, will you definitely be doing it?

[Bernster]

I like the sound of riding to the start (esp the ferry / New Forest bit) but am wary of the extra 50km and so will have to think about it further.  Bernster & Anthony, will you definitely be doing it?

I think that's pretty much my only option at the moment Simon, I just need to work out which train to get to Southampton Airport Parkway to leave enough time for a very leisurely ride to Poole via the ferry/New Forest, as well as time to get something to eat before the start.

[Anthony]

Yes I'm definitely doing the prologue - 8:35 train from Waterloo booked. Be great to have company.

Thanks for the route smeth - I took the hythe ferry once before, it's lovely,

[Smeth]

Please check for yourselves but I think trains are running to Southampton Central not just Airport Parkway. They are showing the bus transfer from Parkway because it's quicker via the M27 from there to Bournemouth than from the city centre. Sorry if everyone'a already spotted this!

[Simon_A]

Yes I'm definitely doing the prologue - 8:35 train from Waterloo booked. Be great to have company.

I think that's pretty much my only option at the moment Simon, I just need to work out which train to get to Southampton Airport Parkway to leave enough time for a very leisurely ride to Poole via the ferry/New Forest, as well as time to get something to eat before the start.

Sorry chaps but I'm going to drive.  The extra 60km (full Hythe-Poole) would just about be OK (+ good training for The Brimstone) but means setting off from home 3-4Hrs earlier on, for me, a rather convoluted & strictly speaking unnecessary journey.  Blasted engineering works...

BUT, I could give one or possibly both of you a lift from Basingstoke Rail Stn if you can be there for 1030-1100.  The Waterloo-Southampton trains normally stop in Basingstoke.  My bike fits inside my Volvo V40, then 1 or 2 others could go on the rear rack.  I've only used the rack for my bike, but it is a x2 capacity and so I assume all this would work.  I could then give lifts back to Basingstoke post-ride (probably after a brief kip in the car), or you could make your own way from Poole.  Let me know.

[Bernster]

BUT, I could give one or possibly both of you a lift from Basingstoke Rail Stn if you can be there for 1030-1100.  The Waterloo-Southampton trains normally stop in Basingstoke.  My bike fits inside my Volvo V40, then 1 or 2 others could go on the rear rack.  I've only used the rack for my bike, but it is a x2 capacity and so I assume all this would work.  I could then give lifts back to Basingstoke post-ride (probably after a brief kip in the car), or you could make your own way from Poole.  Let me know.

I'd be up for doing that if it's practical and if it's not putting you out in any way Simon - obviously will pay my share of petrol / parking etc. I'll PM you about this, as I'm sure the average YACFer doesn't want to read about our transport logistics 

[zigzag]

received a porkers routsheet and instructions today - the profile, while hilly, doesn't look too bad (might be a different case in real life!). just hoping that the weather gets better than forecast (showers all weekend..).

[Gadget]

Has anyone else encountered problems with the gps files? I've downloaded them off the Wessex web site- all 7 files can be viewed on bike hike- I've copied them into my garmin etrex 30 ok while connected to my PC- unfortunately when I switch on the device the files can not be seen anywhere- I've tried changing them all to 499 way points- but again the unit doesn't show them.
I checked other files (ie the shark 200) and my unit does show that, so I suspect it's the files rather than the unit.
Any suggestions?
Thanks

[Kev Dennett]

Hi,

I edited my 2015 files by loading them into ridewithgps then exporting them again as I had a problem with my Garmin too. The files look unchanged looking at this years route sheets so here are the ones I used:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7acigidjm0dbrpu/AABgi6ghG0NJ-TO4SEYkWSKEa?dl=0

Hope they help. Kev

[Huff n Puff]

After much faffing about, this worked for me, but it's a bit long winded:

1) I downloaded the files from the Wessex SR website on to my PC 'downloads' folder.
2) I then uploaded all 7 files/routes in to Ride With GPS
3) I changed the route names to Portkers 1, Porkers 2, Porkers 3 etc in Ride With GPS
4) I then exported the files as GPX files from Ride With GPS to my PC 'downloads' folder
5) I copied the files to my Garmin

I suspect that steps 4 and 5 could be done as one, ie directly to the Garmin, but that's not what I did.
When I changed the file names in the Downloads folder, I couldn't get more than one file to register on my Garmin, which is why I did the name changes in Ride With GPS. It seemed to me that the problem with the original versions is that they all seemed to have the same name as far as the Garmin was concerned, so the Garmin only registered one....that may not be the case, but that's what it seemed like to me and the fact that it only worked after doing the name changes in Ride With GPS clinches the argument for me!

[Ian H]

I uploaded them with Basecamp, and they're all visible.  However, Basecamp offered to create tracks from the files, which I did.  So I have tracks (which I want) and some kind of routes with waypoints.

[Anthony]

Early forecast looks like some rain at the start with a stiff headwind most of the way out to Taunton, possibly easing off by the turn. Cold overnight but drier / brighter Monday morning.

http://www.weatherbagel.com/f/ba572cb6-837e-420e-85d2-a891380d64a3

[GPS]

Weatherbagel seems to have upped the ante on the rain and wind forecast for the whole ride, so I looked at the Met Office forecast just to sanity check it.

The Met Office predict calmer and drier conditions, so I wonder if weatherbagel errs to the pessimistic side of forecasting? Both have been wide of the mark when I've looked before rides previously, but they have been useful in working out which layers to pack.

I'll be riding it whatever the weather and packing some winter clothing this time ... 

[zigzag]

can anyone pm organiser's number? ta

[andyp]

Bright sunny start to the Porkers, followed by a sea mist, followed by fog that lasted all night made for an atmospheric ride amongst the bluebells.

I've posted some of my photos here:
http://bit.ly/1rrtBo7